this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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[–] calmnchaos@lemmy.world 16 points 7 hours ago

In other news, Perplexity has signed a deal with Motorola to have the browser preinstalled on their phones.

[–] KenLin@lemmy.world 35 points 8 hours ago

I appreciate him saying it upfront. Makes it easy to stay away from all of their products.

[–] rpl6475@lemmy.ml 36 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Companies are so removed from what users want, they only focus on what shareholders want to hear and don't consider that users will hate it.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Because there is legal precedent that says shareholders come first.

You can blame Dodge for this. Yes, that Dodge.

[–] letzlo@feddit.nl 20 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

But then users use it anyway for some reason. Many people care so little.

[–] Zetta@mander.xyz 3 points 6 hours ago

Most people are unintelligent sacks of meat, not much critical thought about what they do runs through their minds.

[–] you_are_it@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 15 hours ago

It is legislation's work.

[–] cmrn@lemmy.world 42 points 17 hours ago

That’s like a cigarette brand marketing themselves as the most cancer-causing.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 21 points 18 hours ago

Oh yeah I'm definitely going to use that. He's a marketing genius.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 49 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When using my current browser, any guess as to how often I've said to myself "I need a browser that spies on me more"?

[–] CarnivorousCouch@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago

Beep boop, this is your browser speaking. You have stated that you need a browser that spies on you more one (1) times.

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[–] winni@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Is Chrome not doing exactly this?

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 hours ago

Chrome doesn't really collect much data directly. It just has no protection against all the trackers on nearly every website that do.

[–] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Chrome is relatively limited in scope compared to, say, a user on an instance of degoogled chromium just using the same Google services along with all the other browsing they do. The extra data that's gathered is generally going to be things like a little more DNS query information, (assuming your device isn't already set to default to Google's DNS server) links you visit that don't already have Google's trackers on them (very few) and some general information like when you're turning on your computer and Chrome is opening up.

The real difference is in how Chrome doesn't protect you like other browsers do, and it thus makes more of the collection that Google's services do indirectly, possible.

Perplexity is still being pretty vague here, but if I had to guess, it would essentially just be taking all the stuff that Google would usually get from tracking pixels and ad cookies, and baking that directly in to the browser instead of it relying on individual sites using it.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And people would voluntarily use this browser ....why?

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 20 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Weirder things have happened. Like people using Brave voluntarily.

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 6 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

I'm out of the loop, what's wrong with Brave?

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[–] GeekySalsa@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Um, should I stop using Brave?

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 hours ago

use librewolf if you want privacy. idk much abt brave but i do know that their ceo is super homophobic, and ive heard that brave sometimes changes the referral links you select to make them money

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[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Ok how long after this browser goes live till we hear it being used by the FBI to track criminals.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 358 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I hate when people post hyperpartisan reporting because it makes me do homework. In this case, you made me listen to almost an hour of a three hour podcast with three techbros chatting about techbro crap in techbro ways. You owe me years of life.

Anyway, so the conspicuously missing context here is he's asked if they will let go of the subscription model and go after an ad business model instead and he responds "hopefully not" and clarifies that he thinks the AI differentiator from Google search is that it doesn't feed people ads.

He then transitions into saying that you'd need a super hyperspecialized profile for it to make sense and then maybe it could work but they haven't figured out long term memory well enough for that, which is when he talks about why they'd want to have a browser to build that hyperspecialized profile.

This is my least favorite type of misinfo, too, because he's actually kinda saying what they say he's saying, just out of context. But more importantly, because he says some other shit that is more outrageous, too. For example, when explaining why he thinks the subscription business will grow more than the ad business the way he puts it is that "people see it as hiring someone", so they're more willing to spend, and he ponders "how much do people pay for personal assistants and assistant managers and nannies?" and suggests that they'll provide similar services for cheaper to people who can't afford human help.

Which may not be as clickbaity and I get he finds it positive-on-the-aggregate, but is certainly some cyberpunk dystopia stuff that didn't need the out of context quoting to be a thing.

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

A scholar and a gentleman!

You owe me years of life.

Best I can do is an upvote and a hearty thank you.

Thank you!

Thanks for you sacrifice and service (it does sound like, but it is NOT sarcastic)

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 day ago

We need more people like you, thank you

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you!

There is an implication, though, that they intend to collect as much data as possible regardless of which model they use? And in the article, he isn't selling any data, I think. Any mention of that?

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 19 points 1 day ago

To be clear, they ARE building an AI-forward browser and he is very plain about collecting a ton of user info. The way it's presented in context is that they intend to plug it in to their assistant/agent thing and surface relevant stuff to you on searches (which is the potential ad opportunity the article quotes as if it was the sole goal). But yeah, the implication is that they are collecting data regardless, even if the user profile ends up being used to cater AI responses to you specifically, to train models or whatever.

Hearing the guy talk about it I get the impression that he envisions an Apple-like ecosystem where they're constantly ingesting data and you're paying them to have their AI services act as a personal assistant and handle purchases and booking for you directly and so on, on top of anwering queries.

I would rather clip my toenails with a rusty chainsaw, myself, but that seems to be the idea.

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago

This is really good information, now I know to avoid their browser like the plague.

[–] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hey, look for that browser to fail instantly as no one will use it.

[–] Trihilis@ani.social 15 points 23 hours ago

They don't want people to use it. They want Google to give them a big bag of money so they can integrate it into chrome.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

Jesus, that escalated quickly...

[–] J52@lemmy.nz 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Dumb and dumber will love it, ts,ts,ts. Some nerds...

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 18 hours ago

Nothing wrong with typescript

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would like for the people, who come up with these ideas, to dogfood their own product. Actually force them to try their own medicine. It would be a single digit percentage of acceptance then

[–] madasi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago

You grossly underestimate how much some people truly love the idea of highly personalized ads. People who believe they are the best possible outcome and cannot fathom why anyone would have any problem with them at all. That's who you are asking to dogfood this product, and they would and would find no issues with it.

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 116 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Why would I use such a browser?

[–] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 49 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Because some influencer say you should. Works this way for too many people.

[–] mat@linux.community 50 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The amount of folks I see use Opera GX "gaming browser" because some influencer said so...

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What the fuck is a gaming browser. Browsers show web pages.

[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It downloads RAM for you, sells your browsing data to major gaming companies, helps you stay on top of your Twitch subs by disabling the ability to block web notifications.

You know, a gaming browser.

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[–] 4am@lemm.ee 45 points 1 day ago

Where is the hacktivism when you need it? These companies need to be gutted from the inside out.

Begin, the AI wars have.

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 2 points 18 hours ago

some people will see this as a feature to be desired, not a bug

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"Help us improve your User Experience by trying as hard as possible to induce to spend money you don't have on crap you don't need."

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think I read somewhere they want to buy Chrome from Google if they are forced to sell. So not many changes, just switching owners who ultimately do the same thing.

i’m not a Chrome user, so screw both google and perplexity.

[–] MdRuckus@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

OpenAI also wants to buy Chrome.

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[–] postnataldrip@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Srinivas believes that Perplexity’s browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them.

Believes it, or is just spinning it that way?

You could show me an ad for exactly what I want in that moment and I'd immediately not want it any more.

Enough already.

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[–] Coyote_sly@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Can't sell reams and reams of customer data if you don't have any customers.

tapforehead.jpg

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